PCT - Day 12: 4/30/18 -San Jacinto

Trail miles: 12.6 from 178.0 - 190.6
Miles hiked: 16.4

typical elevation 

First, I have nothing but awesome things to say about the people who run the Idyllwild Inn. They not only drove four of us hikers to the trailhead this morning, but they also agreed to drop my bounce box off at the post office since it wasn’t open yet.

San Jacinto

Today’s hike involved a lot of elevation gain/loss since the trail meandered all over San Jacinto Peak.  Parts of the trail were very narrow and lined with some kind of plant that I assume is something from the mountain laurel family. Either way, it did a good job of shredding my lower legs.

pines

My hike was mostly in solitude today. I crossed paths with a few other hikers at the creek. There everyone stopped to get water and in the large crowd everyone seemed to be talking to someone (except me). It triggered my social anxiety pretty bad so I just filtered my water silently and left. That river was the last water for 20 miles. I took 5 liters.

I just plodded along today sort of lost in my own thoughts. As much as I would have liked to just dance down the trail doing trekking pole tricks, listening to iTunes, my heavy pack dictated a more boring approach. I was weighed down with enough food to make it to Big Bear Lake and five liters of water.

The dropping temperatures and rising inversion clouds made me stay focused of the primary goal of getting to a sheltered tent spot.

I decided to stop early, around 4pm, since the weather was worsening and the wind was howling through the trees. That and my old knees can only handle a limited amount of punishment from long descents, so I was hoping to leave 6000 feet of elevation drop for tomorrow, since I’d already done a bunch today. I also read that the tent sites three miles further were more exposed to the wind, which is another reason I stopped just shy of mile 191.

Staying at this higher altitude (7700 feet) is a little bit of a gamble since it is very cold already. However, I’d rather be in a colder location that has less wind for the storm rolling in tonight.

campsite

This incoming storm has also put a damper on my plan to night hike past the bees at mile 202 tomorrow. I’ll just roll with the punches that Mother Nature is throwing. At this point, I just want to get past these anxiety creating bees via any means, so fuck it. I guess I’ll just walk straight past that nest on the trail tomorrow in the daylight.

trail message

Tomorrow, if it’s not snowing, I’m going to try to hike all the way past the Mesa Wind farm tomorrow.  It’d be my longest day yet.  If I wake up and it’s snowing, I might just stay in my tent all day and eat white chocolate M&Ms.

Trail Flowers